


The older you get

by fanetjuh



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-01
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-05-10 22:45:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5603701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fanetjuh/pseuds/fanetjuh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt Donovan has managed to survive as a human and is now in a retirement home. Every Thursday Damon visits him to play a few card games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The older you get

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mlein80](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlein80/gifts).



His hands were trembling and even squeezing his eyes didn’t help him to really get the numbers and symbols on the cards sharp. His reading glasses were somewhere, but he didn’t want to ring the bell to ask someone to get them for him. 

The nurses were already working hard enough. They could do without him asking to complete simple tasks like finding glasses he had put down himself.

“Donovan!” 

Matt rolled his eyes when he heard a well known voice.

Damon came to visit him every week. Every Thursday he ignored the penetrating smell, just to sit with Matt for an hour or so. 

Not that Matt would say it out loud, but he was happy that Damon came once in a while. It helped him to keep track of the days. It helped him to know that today was Thursday. 

“Wait, did you lose even more hair, Quarterback?” 

Matt couldn’t see the smile on Damon's face, but he didn’t need to see it to know that it was there. “Well, I don’t know. I kinda lost my glasses yesterday and can’t find them anymore.” Matt shrugged his shoulders and he smiled back. 

Some people in the retirement home had stopped putting their dentures in. Apart from the other people here no-one would see it anyway. 

But Matt made sure he wasn’t seen without it. 

Just in case Elena would come to visit him. 

Or just in case it was Thursday.

“Fine, I’ll find them for you.” 

Matt knew that Damon was rolling his eyes. 

Not that it would take Damon hours to find the glasses. He was still in his mid-twenties and even his human eyesight should be a lot better than Matt’s. 

“Here, can you finally have a look at a handsome face again.” Damon pressed the glasses in Matt’s hand. 

Matt could barely hold them anymore, but he forced himself to put the glasses on his nose. He had to try it three times, but eventually he could see Damon’s mocking face, still looking twenty-something. 

“Damn, you look horrible.” Matt raised his thick white eyebrows and cocked his head a little. 

“My human body isn’t used to my average alcohol consumption yet.” Damon took the playing cards from the table and started to shuffle them. 

They’ve been playing the same game since the day Matt had been brought in here. Not that he had wanted to leave Mystic Falls, but Damon had decided that Matt couldn’t stay at home any longer. Matt had not wanted to admit it, but Damon had been right.

Walking the stairs had become almost impossible, even more dangerous than a run in with a vampire that wasn’t too tempted now he was almost eighty-four. 

Cooking had become a harder task than aiming his gun and dressing himself had been nothing but a disaster. 

“Yeah, I see. Is that your first grey hair?” Matt squeezed his eyes and he enjoyed the glimmer of panic on Damon’s face. 

“Donovan, you’ll never see my grey hairs.” Damon leaned back in his chair and started to deal the cards. 

“Unless some vampire sucks you dry. You might die before I do.” Matt checked his cards and decided that he would lose, again. He lost every week. He was starting to think that Damon had found a way to cheat. Or actually, it would surprise him if Damon hadn’t. 

After all, how would Damon ever bare the thought of losing from a senior? “It’s not gonna happen, graybeard.” Damon smiled while reordering the cards in his hands. “That requires intelligence and if vampires had that, they wouldn’t become human.” He placed the first card in the middle of the table.

“Says the vampire that became human because of a girl.” Matt placed a card on top of Damon’s, even though it took him five times as long to do so. 

“Well, if even you can reach the age of eighty-three, I should be able to get there too.” Damon placed another card on the table and Matt sighed, knowing that he had to take five extra cards. “Although, this retirement home is not exactly where I would want to spend the last years of my life.” Damon took the five cards for Matt and pushed them towards him, waiting patiently until Matt had grabbed them, barely able to hold them. 

“I'm sure you can come up with better ways to die.” Matt picked one card and then another and placed them both on top of Damon’s.

“If you ever want tips or help, you know where to find me.” Damon grabbed two cards at once and was now holding one last card. 

“No, I’m fine.” Matt placed a card on the table and saw how Damon placed his on top of it. Cheating. Damon was definitely cheating. “Not everyone is afraid of dying.” Damon grabbed the cards from the table and shuffled them again. 

Matt would have wanted to do it himself, but every time he tried, the cards ended up on the floor, slipping through his wrinkled fingers. 

“I'm not afraid of dying.” Damon dealt the cards again and once more Matt’s cards wouldn’t get him anywhere. 

Sometimes Matt didn’t know why he was still doing this. “You just don’t wanna die in an elderly home with grey hair.” Matt shook his head and Damon placed his first card in the middle of the table. 

“I don’t wanna end up like you, Donovan.” Damon spoke softly, but where Matt's eyesight had worsened over the years, his hearing still worked fine. 

“You don’t wanna survive the supernatural world and die of old age?” Matt placed two cards on top of Damon’s. 

“Don’t give yourself too much credit, Mr blue-eyes.” Damon placed three cards on the table and already grabbed the five cards to shove them towards Matt. 

Matt should check if the wild cards were marked, because it really started to look like that. 

“Apart from surviving you didn’t do anything anyone will ever talk about.” Damon waited until Matt had placed another card on the table and then threw his pre-last card on top of it. 

“No, I've never murdered an entire town and made it into the newspapers.” Matt threw two more cards on top of Damon’s and sighed when Damon threw his last card on it. 

“I have a whole life to make up for that.” Damon stared at the clock and he grabbed the cards to put them back into the box, hidden behind one of the flowers, that Matt had lost days ago already. “You’ll die, knowing that no one will actually miss you.” Damon shrugged his shoulders and walked towards the door. 

“Tell Elena I said hi.” Matt grabbed the box with the cards again. Now he finally had his glasses back, he was gonna try to find out how Damon did manage to win every game they played. Not that he minded. Secretly he was already looking forward to next week. 

After all, losing was still better than having no one to play with.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The older he gets](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5604658) by [mlein80](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mlein80/pseuds/mlein80)




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